Chapter Text
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ For the first few weeks of living in New York Sabrina feels overwhelmingly homesick. New York is intimidating, and she's the first person to admit that she has culture shock.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina has lived in a small town her entire life prior to this move and just isn't used to doing things like they had to be done in New York. (Like walking through peak hour traffic on the way to school, like having to skip her morning coffee because the line was too long, like catching the subway). The skyscrapers and the bustling streets had thrown her off initially, and sometimes (even after a good month) they still did, she would look up and see Stark tower or the Empire State building and marvel at the sheer enormity of them.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Honestly, even after getting over her culture shock and homesickness Sabrina mostly just resented Salem for the chaos that he'd caused back in Greendale. For a warlock with a penchant for world domination, turned black cat, he certainly caused a lot of ruckus. They really had no choice, they had to leave - it was that or they face something that had the potential escalate into a witch hunt. That was the thing about small towns; strange people - people like the Spellman's - stuck out. But in New York, as Sabrina had learnt, people just dismissed you as New Age Wiccans... or crazy people (and honestly she still wasn't sure which she preferred). Thus, slowly but surely, the bustling city grew on her. Because in New York, Sabrina could be normal. Or, you know, as normal as a teenage half-witch could be.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ School was good too, for the most part at least. It was a Science and Technology school, which was a bit of a bummer because the only science Sabrina really excelled at was Chemistry (it was enough like potion making, which she'd been doing since she was nine, for her to get good marks), however her other required unit of science, Biology, really did not go as well. Luckily, Midtown's Humanities faculty was also quite good, and Sabrina has always been good and Sociology and History. On top of that, she didn't really have friends per say. Sometimes she sat with a girl called Michelle Jones, who usually looked disheveled, and hardly spoke to Sabrina about anything other than their shared classes. But it really wasn't that bad, she didn't really have friends back in Greendale either (other than Harvey) so it wasn't much more different than usual.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ It was refreshing though - Midtown High; New York; even Michelle. An escape from small town life, where everyone knew her and her weird aunts. Where she knew everyone else and whether they thought she was weird or not. Sure, she sort of missed Greendale. Greendale was her home, she couldn't deny that, but its novelty wore off very quickly. Or more the novelty of her longterm on and off boyfriend wore off very quickly - because in all honesty he had been the only one keeping her from begging her aunts to move.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Harvey Kinkle quickly became, for lack of a better word, boring. He was cute and nice and respectful and all the things a good boyfriend should be, but there was still something missing. A spark maybe, or perhaps common interests. Or the fact that she had to hide her biggest secret from him. It took a toll on their relationship, and he'd begun to suspect she was hiding something. But before anything could come of it, Salem had caused the 'incident' and she, Zelda and Hilda had fled to New York quicker than you could say 'Abracadabra!' (well, okay truth be told no one ever said Abracadabra and really, it was an insult to the wizarding community that she had even suggested that they did).
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Point is, she likes New York. She sees herself building a life here. One free of small town judgement. A normal life.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Cut to Monday morning and Sabrina is woken up not by the sound of her alarm but by the sound of something combusting and the smell of burnt.... christ, she really doesn't want to know what that smell is. Groaning, she wipes away the crust that has collected in the corner of her eyes overnight (all because she was too tired to wipe off the eyeshadow she wore yesterday). Next she gropes for her phone. It's 6:23, only seven minutes before her alarm is due to go off. She's got a text from Harvey, a few Instagram notifications, and a snapchat from Michelle. She opens up the snapchat first, it's a video of some sort of rally, Michelle sent it last night, Sabrina reminds herself to ask Michelle about it at lunch today. She then replies with a picture of her window, Michelle sends her so many videos of her at rallies and photos of interesting articles that they now have a streak going. Then, Sabrina shuts her phone and ignores Harvey's message. She'll deal with that later.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Emerging from her room, Sabrina is immediately faced with a predicament. Zelda, or Hilda (probably Hilda) has turned the hallway into a swamp, complete with it's own crocodile. True to Sabrina's prediction, Hilda is standing at the opposite end of the hallway in the kitchen, where the ground is once again hardwood floor, not dirty swamp water looking gleeful.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Aunt Hilda! What the hell? I have to go to school", Sabrina throws her arms up in frustration from the other side of the hallway swamp.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Oh, Sabrina! Good morning! I was hoping you'd reconsider applying to Other Realm University."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ It's classic Hilda, trying to stop her from pursuing a mortal life, she's always trying to find ways to convince Sabrina to go to wizarding schools like she, Zelda and her Dad had gone to. Sabrina often has to remind her older aunt that she is half-mortal and will thus, not live the five hundred or so years required to complete wizarding education, at this rate, if she's lucky she'll reach a good 110.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina rolls her eyes, "Hilda, I'm still in high school. I'm not even applying for mortal university yet, never mind Other Realm university. Please drop it!"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Hilda!", Zelda comes into Sabrina's view, reprimanding her older sister, "She is sixteen for merlin's sake! Get rid of this."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina sighs, wondering if she should just go back into her room and face Harvey's message. It certainly couldn't be worse than a swamp in between her and her crazy aunts. She's about to do it too - turn around and leave Hilda and Zelda to their own devices. But then Hilda snaps her fingers and the swamp turns back into hardwood. Shortly after, Hilda herself zaps out of existence, mumbling curses as she goes. She'll, if they're lucky,be gone for a good portion of the morning.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Good morning Sabrina", Zelda, the more rational of her aunts, greets her wearily, "Sorry about all that with Hilda."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina sighs, long suffering, and collapses into a chair at the breakfast table, "I know how she is."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Oh sweetie", Zelda pats her shoulder, "You're such a good kid, I'll get you breakfast."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ School really isn't much better than the debacle that was her morning. In homeroom she steps in gum (this is a quick fix though and her ankle boots are back to being spotless after a quick trip to the bathroom and a cleaning spell). Then she has double Math and the mark she gets back from her last project is less than desirable (a 72/100), but she can't zap it into non-existence because the teacher has already recorded the marks and Sabrina isn't about to risk an investigation being launched. Then comes recess which she spends in the library doing her Sociology homework. Then, she actually has Sociology, during which she gets into an argument with someone about whether or not Trump's America is actually doing any damage ("of course it is! he's enabling the rise of fascist thinking in the western world!"). US history is better, mostly because she is marginally better at history than any other subject (the perks of having aunts who are approximately 600 years old).
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Lunch of course is her saviour. Fifty glorious minutes, free of the pressure of school work, solely allocated for the consumption of food. It's her favourite part of the day, even if she usually has no one to sit with.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Today though, by some stroke of fate, she and Michelle go to collect their food at the same time. With a non-committal shrug from Michelle and a slight nod from Sabrina they find a table on the outskirts of the cafeteria, away prying eyes. They chat, for once, mostly about Michelle's protest and heteronormativity, but it's nice. Sabrina is halfway through making a loud statement about how black people shouldn't have to reassure white people that they're free of guilt because it's not black people's responsibility to cater for the emotions of white people who clearly don't understand the disadvantage that black people have faced and will face, when her phone lights up.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Shit", she mutters, picking the phone up. Harvey's texted her again.
TO: SABRINA SPELLMAN
FROM: HARVEY KINKLE
sunday, 11:57pm
hey... uh are you ignoring me??
monday, 1:12pm
ok, well either you're still asleep or you are ignoring me. sab, i really don't want us to fall apart. you're my friend, even if we're not together anymore. i still care about you, please reply!! xx
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina winces.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Sorry Michelle, let me just reply to this."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "No problem", Michelle shrugs, but Sabrina feels bad anyway - she makes a mental note to do Michelle a magic related favour in the next few days (but honestly what did that girl even need help with, it seemed very much like she had it all figured out and Sabrina wasn't sure that she needed her help).
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Back to Harvey. She'd been trying to distance herself from Harvey. If they rekindled their friendship she'd want to move back to Greendale. In her opinion it was better that they stay distanced, because the Spellman's simply could not move back to Greendale. Yet, he clearly didn't share her view - thus the reason why she was getting texts from him almost everyday.
TO: HARVEY KINKLE
FROM: SABRINA SPELLMAN
monday, 1:14pm
shouldn't you be in school?
monday, 1:14pm
you're in school too sabrina
monday, 1:15pm
harvey we can't be friends. i'm not coming back to greendale.
monday, 1:15pm
why not? i still don't get why you left
monday, 1:15pm
i cant explain... i also cant have the conversation now, i have homework to do. sorry harvey.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina sighs. She locks her phone, burying it in her bag to deal with later.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Who was that?", Michelle asks, her eyes narrowed curiously.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Ex-boyfriend from Greendale", Sabrina says offhandedly, waving her arm in a dismissive way, "I'm trying to distance myself from him, he's not loving it. I'm not loving that he's not loving it."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle nods, "Ahh, boys are assholes, got it."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Yeah", Sabrina agrees, drawing circles into the table with her finger, "He's not so much an asshole, he's just taking a while to adjust I suppose. The move was pretty sudden."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Correction then; boys have the emotional range of a teaspoon."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina snorts, "Nice Harry Potter reference, I respect that" - Harry Potter was always a nice break from the reality of being a witch - "Also, totally accurate."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle nods, seemingly uninterested, but she keeps asking questions, so it's safe to say she probably is interested, "Why the sudden move?"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina purses her lips, "Well, my cat destroyed my aunt's bakery. Don't ask how, it remains a mystery." - it doesn't actually, it was the result of Salem trying to escape from his 'cat prison' again, the bakery was collateral - "We decided it was probably best to leave rather than stay and be the family whose cat ruined a business. Small towns and all."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle raises an eyebrow, "So the cat went berserk?"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Yeah, really weird", Sabrina nods, if a little awkwardly, Michelle is a little too perceptive for her liking.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle nods, and then sets down her fork, she grabs her bag and moves from the seat, "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina shoots her a thumbs up and watches her go.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ As Michelle weaves through the crowd, Sabrina lets her eyes wander. She drags her eyes over the cafeteria until someone catches her eye. Not too far away theres this lanky kid she's seen in a few of her classes who seems to have little to no control over his own limbs. He's watching someone... and that someone would be Michelle - who has just now disappeared into the bathroom. Sabrina's eyes flit back the boy. He's been joined by a his smaller friend, who looks like he's talking his ear off. Oh, oh... and lanky kid has just walked into a support beam. Sabrina stifles a small laugh but then frowns as she notices his books slip from his arms, and papers sliding across the floor. He and his friend scramble to grab hold of the papers before people step on them.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina mumbles a jinx under her breath and guides the few pieces of paper she can catch sight of back into their reach. Once they've gathered all the papers and shoved them unceremoniously into the kid's bag, they take a seat at an empty table not too far from where Sabrina is sitting. She watches them for a while... not in a creepy way, more observation.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Sabrina."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina jumps, "Sorry, sorry", Michelle is back now and she's got both her eyebrows raised.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Who were you looking at?"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Uh", Sabrina points discreetly over at the table claimed by lanky kid and short boy, "The skinny one walked into a support beam, I wanted to see if he passed out or not."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Fair enough", Michelle turns briefly to look, "That's Peter. His friend is called Ned."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "You know them?"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "They're on the academic decathlon team with me, we're... friends."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina nods, "Peter's cute."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle snorts, "You think?"
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina shrugs, "Yeah, I guess. In a clumsy wreck type of way."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Michelle turns to look again, staring for a few seconds, and then she turns back to Sabrina and smirks, "Sure."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ When she arrives home Hilda is back, and in a substantially better mood than this morning - so much so that she greets Sabrina when she walks through the door. She and Zelda are in the kitchen cooking something up in the cauldron (Sabrina is never really sure if they're cooking food or brewing a potion). Salem is nowhere to be see - she figures he's out exploring the neighbourhood, exerting dominance and superiority over all the other cats, or attempting to recruit them for some evil plot.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ She grabs herself a leftover slice of Hilda's apple pie and retreats to her room to do bum around before it becomes absolutely necessary to do her homework. She's spent a good half-hour sitting at her desk chair, disappearing into the void that is her Instagram feed, when she hears something scratching at her window.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ She spins around. It's Salem pawing at the glass. She smirks and cracks the window for him to come in.
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Hey Salem", she greets, if a bit mockingly, "Haven't seen you in a while."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Salem pads inside, looking as indignant as a cat can look, "I've been out recruiting cats for my plan of world domination."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina takes a seat in her chair raising an eyebrow at the cat, "And..."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "They're complete imbeciles", he rolls his eyes, "They refuse to listen, never mind cooperate with my plan."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "That's New York for you I suppose, even the cats don't have time for your shit."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "God", Salem sobs, jumping onto up her bed, "I hate it here. At least back in that town I was getting close to world domination."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ Sabrina laughs, "Huh, I did really think you'd like it here."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Sabrina. I cultivated a reputation in Greendale. Other cats feared me. Here they just ignore me."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Get used to it Saberhagen. We're here to stay. Besides", she points a finger at him, "this is your fault. If you hadn't tried to become human again and in doing so destroyed the bakery, we wouldn't even be here."
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ "Oh bite me Sabrina."